Approaches to Teaching Ibsen's A Doll HouseEditor(s): Yvonne Shafer
Pages: xv & 139 pp.
Published: 1985
ISBN: 9780873524872
"Today the lively state of Ibsen production, the critical reappraisals of his work, and the availability of modern, colloquial translations afford us an unprecedented opportunity to study and appreciate Ibsen's A Doll House both on the stage and in print. The challenge for the instructor teaching the play is to bring the literary and theatrical dimensions together."

Yvonne Shafer, from the introduction

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Since its publication over a century ago, A Doll House has often been narrowly read as a single-thesis play--as a commentary on women's rights. Recent scholarship and criticism, however, suggest multiple interpretations of Ibsen's most famous work; teachers of A Doll House can profit from these new perspectives and lead their students to an appreciation of many different aspects of the play.

The volume, like others in the MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, is divided into two parts. The first part, "Materials," analyzes the faults and merits of the many available translations of A Doll House and recommends background materials and supplemental readings for both teachers and students. The second part, "Approaches," samples many ways to teach the play in the classroom. The first three essays show how to incorporate the play into introductory courses on literature and composition; the following four essays focus on teaching the play in more advanced classes on dramatic literature. The remaining seven essays present specific strategies, such as using feminist approaches, examining performances of the play, and comparing A Doll House to Ibsen's other plays in a graduate seminar.

Table of Contents

Approaches to Teaching A Doll House

Introduction: Teaching All of A Doll House

PART 1: MATERIALSYvonne Shafer

Editions and Translations

Collections of Ibsen Plays

Anthologies Containing the Works of Several Authors

English Translations of A Doll House

Thomas F. Van Laan

Required and Recommended Student Readings

Aids to Teaching

The Instructor's Library

Reference Works

Background Studies

Biographies and Critical Studies

PART 2: APPROACHES

Introduction

Introductory Courses in Literature and Composition

From Relevance to Critical Thinking: The Critical DifferenceLois More Overbeck

Ibsen in the Freshman Honors CourseSverre Lyngstad

A Doll's House in a Community CollegeJoanne Gray Kashdan

Courses in Dramatic Literature

Teaching A Doll's House: An OutlineOtto Reinert

How to Get into A Doll House: Ibsen's Play as an Introduction to DramaJune Schlueter

Ibsen and the Well-Made PlayCary M. Mazer

A Marxist Approach to A Doll HouseBarry Witham and John Lutterbie

Feminism and A Doll House

A Doll House in a Course on Women in LiteratureKatharine M. Rogers

Nora's UncertaintyIrving Deer

Learning through Performing

The Opening Moments of A Doll's House: For Performance and Analysis in ClassJ. L. Styan

Performance as Criticism: A Doll House Scene Work in the English ClassroomGay Gibson Cima